De mannen achter succesvolle vrouwen: Kanjers of maatjes?

Summary
Using data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study, this paper compares the
partners of successful women with those of women who have fared less well on the
labor market. Success is measured as belonging to the top ten percent income bracket
of the female sample. The male breadwinner model where husbands contribute most
to the household income characterizes the majority of couples, particularly in the
older age groups. Successful women tend to have „sharing companions‟ who make
less money than they do rather than „big shots‟ who have high incomes. Whether their
partners espouse gender egalitarian attitudes makes no differences for women‟s
success. Rather, having a partner who performs a fair share of domestic tasks relates
to women‟s socio-economic achievement. Mothers with resident children are more
successful when their partners have short work weeks, but the success of childless
women and empty nest mothers shows no association with their partners‟ work hours.
With women‟s increasing socio-economic independence, partner relations will likely
become premised on different logics compared with the past. For economically
autonomous women, men‟s disposition towards companionship will be an important
consideration, whereas men faced with economically autonomous women will be
required to substantively contribute to domestic work.